Few practices regarding the supervision & mentoring of postgraduate students:

1. Maintaining close contact with the students

2. Mentoring few (2-5 per teacher) students not a bigger group

3. Maintaining track record of academic and relationship related activities

4. Give some time for personal matters and problems

5. Advise the students about career and future course of action

6. Give them some lead work to develop leadership qualities

7. Etc. ... .

Thanks

Few practices regarding the supervision & mentoring of postgraduate students:

1. Maintaining close contact with the students

2. Mentoring few (2-5 per teacher) students not a bigger group

3. Maintaining track record of academic and relationship related activities

4. Give some time for personal matters and problems

5. Advise the students about career and future course of action

6. Give them some lead work to develop leadership qualities

7. Etc. ... .

Thanks

Master the relevant literature of the topic they are working on?

Finding following practices might help a supervisor in mentoring postgraduate students in their research:

1) Inculcate the habit to read academic articles / journals related to the student's research - this includes e.g. promoting the reading of 1 article per day & also teaching the student how to capture the articles' summarized points so that s/he can refer back for future literature review & research method writeup.  The summarized points can include the softcopy article filename, title, author(s), issues addressed, problem statement, methodological philosophy, research method, findings, limitations & future research.

2) Encourage the student to extract a portion of his or her research and present as conference proceeding - this can boost up his or her confidence / know how in article writing & presentation during proposal defense or viva exam etc. (e.g. through public presentation, the student can learn time management, anticipation of questions that might asked by audience & how to answer difficult questions posed by the audience etc)

3) Motivate the student to write & publish a portion of his or her thesis in journals (reputable journals if possible) - because through this the student can learn a lot through tough reviewers' scholarly critiques to improve his or her article before getting published (student can feel motivated when his or her article is published and the tough learning from reviewer can further improve the way he or she write the final thesis)

4) Understand & recognize the student's strengths & weaknesses so that the supervisor can leverage on the student's strengths or / and improve his or her weaknesses to complete the research

1. Trust your students: Every student wants to feel that they have earned their guide confidence.

2. Appreciate them: Appreciation is most desired course of action any students expects from his guide

3. Make them feel you care: give time to discuss their future plans, problems etc.

4. Work presentation bimonthly: Will help to track their work record & improve presentation skills, bring confidence

5. Writing : encourage to write at least one reputed paper summary every week. Laymen summary kind of writing

6. Give them clear research plan: Like first phase literature study, purchase of chemicals, reaction plants etc. final research will evolve itself

7. Thank them: Thank them for doing something good in lab 

8. Encourage them to participate in extra curricular activities.

Blah blah

Thanks & Regards

Ejaz

I have got the opportunity to co-supervise 3 masters student. It was most interesting. I am listing what I felt and did... and glad to mention that all three students got publications.

1) First day while interacting with the student.. Supervisors must have a plan in his hand with time line and work plan.

2) what needs to be done should be clear.

3) also generate curiosity among students by giving them broad picture and its final use.

4) Also ask them to do general reading on the topic and discuss with them in coming 4-5 sittings over a month or two.

5) here you can ask them about there interest and what they think would be interesting according to them. Now bring them to specifics....

6) Frame the discussion in such a way that it will make students to look for answers and come to you with more questions.

7) then you have to motivate them to look for answers. Give them interesting situations that lead to answers.

8) After then share the work plan with them. Also fix the goal of publication.

9) Also make them aware how to carry out scientific literature search and tools available.

10) make them aware about the standard practices and international status.

11) Most importantly about scientific ethics of highest rank, plagiarism.

and there are many more things..... More over motivate them towards career in research....

In theory, supervision of  postgraduate students is a rewarding experience which comes with rewards such as reduction of teaching loads & possibility of joint publication of research results. In practice, an honest  university scholar may be given students "whose money brought them to postgraduate study & not their excellence in undergraduate programs". In such cases, supervision will be a heavy burden in which there is nearly total reliance upon the professor. This accumulates hardship on an aging person & may end up with several exhaustions /week.

Really Dr Nizar you have highlighted a bitter reality. Thank you very much.

Depending on the research subject, supervision can be a one-to-one (one supervisor, one PhD student) activity (which is most often the case in my subject of mathematics) or it may be a more class-oriented activity. My own experience is of the one-to-one type.

In math there are quite a number of advanced courses that the student needs to take before being able to contribute to science. So supervision will be a mix of course-related activities and research-related work, such as providing good background articles to read, PhD student courses to take (some being based on reading good books, and some being courses actually given in class - often internationally), international conferences to attend in order to learn what others are doing and to create international contacts, and so on.

I have found that students come in so many shapes and forms that it is best to arrange for a relation between the student and the supervisor that fits the two the best. Some PhD students want to work on their own, some want to have frequent - booked -  contacts with the supervisor(s). The best arrangement needs to be settled individually in order for the team to work the very best. In some cases work is done in a broader context, whence it is possible for more than one supervisor to share the duties, and the student can then get the benefit of a variety of knowledge from the team of supervisors.

In any case, every PhD student is an individual - that must never be forgotten - and the role of the supervision, and the needs, will therefore have to be investigated, and perhaps adjusted, over time, such that all parties involved are satisfied.

Above all and in addition to what was already said and written, most important in supervisiing are two points: 1. encourage your students to find their own voice, to defend their own arguments and not just to repeat what others have written. 2. Show them the entrance to academia. Academia can be a closed territorium sometimes, that treats newcomers with ignorance. Give them all the information you have about journals, conferences CfP, academic societies and social media for academic like RG. Prepare them for their first published artcles and paper presentations. And make sure that they will know the importance of networking.

Dear @Ahmad, in past few years I was reading some good articles about this issue of mentoring, while,at the same time I have taken part in some related discussions. Here are those resources!

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_are_the_most_important_qualities_that_PhD_supervisors_must_have_to_successfully_guide_a_graduate_student/1

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_are_the_ideal_qualities_of_a_research_supervisor/4

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_are_the_obligations_duties_of_an_academic_supervisor_how_are_these_included_in_the_job_role_what_recognition_remuneration_do_they_receive/1

Article How to be a Good Mentee

Highly agree with Claus, the majority of our students are repeaters of what others say, which makes the main task of mentoring is building self-confidence in students to take chances in analyzing even it is wrong, but most important learn from the experience.

Dear Ahmad

In addition to what have been mentioned above, I think the key issues are: effective communication between the mentor and the mentee, understanding each other and making adjustments to avoid conflicts, effective time management, SWOT analysis of both the mentor and the student (many times the mentors themselves are not clear what they want from the students), encouraging development of paper writing/presenting skills, mentoring discipline, commitment, perseverance, hard work etc. in the students.

Best wishes.

Dear colleagues,

Good Day,

Please, see the attached articles for "the roles and responsibilities of supervisors and mentors for Postgraduate Research Students." I hope that you will find them very useful.

Dear Jose and other friends you are right that confidence building is very important for students as they will be future supervisors and mentors.

Dear Ahmad: In my opinion, the work of a supervisor does not differ much from the work of a Professor or a Researcher. Is perhaps a complement of both?

Yes, that is true dear @Abhishek about listening. Active listening skills are something that every mentor should posses and develop! "...Active listening is an essential mentoring skill. Many mentors make the mistake of confusing “hearing” and “listening.” Hearing is only the first part of listening, the physical part when your ears pick-up the sound-waves. Listening, however, is the interpretation of what you heard that leads to understanding or misunderstanding. This is followed by the evaluation stage where you weigh the information and determine how you will use it. Finally, based on what you thought you heard and how you evaluated, you react...."

http://pcaddick.com/page8.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQxJmiTQV0c

Dear Ahmad,

Here we use  monthly "scientific meetings" where all students must submit slides with the progress of their research and development perspective and answer questions from colleagues.

Vanessa

Reading what others have said is really good, don't know about the fishing here people may get distracted as the rivers are full. Anyway, having really good communication skills is essential. Being a humble mentor not arrogant or over-bearing, just a buddy two steps ahead. Dropping the jargon, which can be disconcerting for the mentee. I love what Professor Isabel Gaulthier has to say on the Mentor's responsibilities and those of the Mentee's responsibilities. Check these out at Vanderbilt.edu.

Forming small group of PG students as tutorial group and allotting to a teacher is a good mentoring practice of postgraduate students.